When Tim Schafer appealed to the fans to help make a new game at his Double Fine productions, not many people expected their goal amount of money to be met - and exceeded - in less than 24 hours.

Craig Will of www.GoozerNation.com interviewed the CEO of the company behind Bowling Wizards, a variety packed game available on the iPhone and Android.

""Later, Notch himself confirmed that he and Schafer were chatting.

'Me and @TimOfLegend are talking to each other via email, and he’s cool with me saying whatever I want about it,' he wrote once again on his Twitter account. 'He’s, like, super awesome.'""

Today the Gamer Safety Alliance announces the start of Gamer Safety Week with some of the biggest names in the business involved. These include Microsoft, Sony, EA and Square Enix, however, some are strangely absent

""In the end, I fully believe that we have to do something about these issues or our industry is going to fall apart," he said. "People often don't understand the cost that goes into creating these huge experiences that we put on the shelves for only $60. They also don't seem to realize how much they are hurting us when they buy a used game and how pirating a copy is just plain stealing.""

As of tomorrow, North American PlayStation Network accounts will become Sony Entertainment Network, or SEN, accounts. This will occur for European accounts on Wednesday and is part of Sony's attempt to join together all aspects of its digital entertainment division.

"THQ have taken a step in what at first seemed to be the wrong direction. The partnership coming no less than a week after the announcement of the company financial troubles has drawn a lot of interest."

Pokémon is one of the biggest franchises of all time and it is no surprise to see that it will get a dedicated section on the Nintendo Zone. The section will include screens, game videos and the coveted television series.

YouTube is home to many very popular video game commentary series, these can pull in upwards of a million viewers. Turtle Entertainment is hoping to bring its successful televised E-sport shows to Europe and America in 2012. Check oput the article for more details

A new Indie game out on the Xbox Live Marketplace this week is raising eyebrows. It was released last Wednesday, January 25, 2012, by developer Bionic-Thumbs. "MegaUP: Upload If You Can!" is a somewhat childish game based off of the recent take down of Megaupload.com. The story line is a bit different than the actual events, as described by the game's description:

Sony has announced that they had a $2.03 billion net loss during their third quarter. They are blaming the loss on recent floods in Thailand, a weak global economy, and unfavorable exchange rates. This earnings announcement comes one day after they announced their current CEO, Sir Howard Stringer, will be replaced by Kazuo Hirai starting April 1.

"CapCom have released their 3rd quarter results and it seems that Monster Hunter is STILL selling strong. The game which is very popular in Japan shipped a lot of units on launch and it is no surprise to see it steadily selling"

In a recent EA earnings call and press release, there is an entry for Mass Effect 3 in the Handheld/Mobile column. While the console and PC sections for the game have been well publicized, not much is known about this portable title.

Star Wars: The Old Repubic was a very highly anticipated game in 2011 and many were wondering if it would ever make back it's estimated $200 million budget, but it seems that EA is on the right tracks.

""The announcement which came this morning on the official Sony website also tells us that Sir Howard Stringer, who is currently the Chairman, CEO and President, will step down from this position""

So, as I was perusing the PSN today, my body atwitter at the potential for new, shiny free PSN+ content, I was greeted with this avatar. And it sent me back on a nostalgic, terrible terrible trip to the past.

According to various members of the company, it appears that the announcement of the PlayStation 4 is definitely not coming at this year's E3. Check out the full article for more details and speculation about the PS4 and Sony's next-gen agenda.

THQ has confirmed that they are laying off more employees in a effort to cut costs. The number of positions affected is unknown, but believed to be high based on projects of sales falling $510-$550 million last quarter. This news comes just after a former employee submitted a letter calling for the termination of management within THQ.

"It would be easy for the game industry to rest on their laurels right now, internationally we stood alongside the rest of the internet and together shouted a mighty ‘COME AT ME BRO!’ to congress. Even the ESA removed their support of SOPA by the end."

"Yesterday Nintendo announced that their losses for the fiscal year are going to be much worse than previously expected. They had a 61% loss in operating profit(profit before taxation, interest etc.) from the start of April until the end of June and are forecasting a ¥45 billion($575 million) operating loss over the full fiscal year, the first loss since Nintendo started reporting earnings in 1981 and the worst financial performance in the corporation’s history."

In a statement issued today by THQ, the publisher has announced that they will be changing their current business strategy in regards to the type of games they focus on. The big change that THQ is making is that they will discontinue any attempt at producing casual or family friendly games. The company has declared that they will be terminating any relationships with entertainment companies that that specialize in these types of titles.
Instead of trying to provide a variety of games to dra...

"GamingUnion: "The year of 2012 is into full swing, but the gaming industry is still flexing its muscles ahead of an action packed February. With that in mind, we figured it would be the perfect time to share some thoughts about what we feel is going to happen in the world of video games this year.""

Gaming legend Jason Rubin talks to Vivid Gamer about the making of Crash Bandicoot , the conflicts between developers and publishers, and the future of our industry. You don’t want to miss this.

In an analysis by Arvind Bhatia from Sterne Agee, Zynga is spending $300 to bring a new customer in and on average a paying customer pays $150. This equates to a loss of $150 and this has brought questions around Zynga's sustainability.

Trion Worlds, developers of Rift, raised $85 million with Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan leading the way. Bertelsmann was also part of the investors. They plan to use the money to expand their gaming operations in Europe and Asia.